Scraps and Snippets ~ German Chocolate Bundt Cake

I used a favorite chocolate bundt cake recipe from An Everyday Vegan and modified it. I've linked to her recipe and am sharing mine as I made it. Her's is delicious. So was mine. I will make a change next time though. I placed the "filling" on top of the batter thinking it would sink. Next time I'll simply pour in half the batter, add the filling and cover it with more batter. Simple fix. 

2 1/4 cups Whole Wheat pastry flour
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp sea salt
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 tsp vinegar

3/4 cup non-dairy milk

1/4 cup strong cold coffee
1/2 cup unsweetened natural apple sauce

Filling and Topping

1 1/2 cup chocolate chips divided
1 cup toasted coconut (see below)

1 cup chopped pecans

1/2 TBSP sugar

1/2 TBSP cocoa

1 Cup non-dairy milk

Preheat to 350 degrees. 

Place coconut shreds on a pan. Place in oven and bake for 8 minutes. Stir and bake another 2, check for golden color. Remove from oven. Separate 1/4 cup for topping. Dump the remainder in a small bowl for filling. Add 3/4 cup chocolate chips. Set aside. Prepare pecans. In a frying pan over med to high heat toss pecans. Stir as you heat them and when aromatic (about a minute or so, add the sugar and cocoa and stir until sugar melts and nuts are coated, about a minute or two.) Let the nuts cool for 5 mins then separate 3/4 cup into the filling bowl and 1/4 (approx) with the remaining coconut for the topping. Prepare your bundt pan with oil/margarine etc, then flour. If your bundt pan is silicone a thin layer of grease should be plenty. 

Mix the vinegar with the milk in a large bowl. Let sit for a few minutes. Add the cooled coffee, sugar, oil and cocoa powder and stir well. Pour in the baking powder, salt and applesauce and incorporate. Add vanilla and stir. Completely mix in the flour. 

Pour the one half of the batter into the prepared bundt cake pan. Using a spoon scoop the chocolate chip/coconut/pecan mixture into the center trying to stay away from the sides. Cover with the remaining batter.  Bake for 40 minutes in the middle of the oven. Remove from oven and let cool in the pan for at least 20 minutes. Turn the pan over onto a plate.

Heat the cup of non-dairy milk in a saucepan. Remove from the heat, pour in the remaining chocolate chips (1/2 cup) and stir until melted. Let sit for 10 minutes or so. Pour over the cooled cake and top with the remaining pecan/toasted coconut mixture.  

Scraps and Snippets ~ Lemon Blueberry Bundt Cake

 A co-worker brought a yogurt strawberry bundt cake into the office a few weeks ago. I tasted it and decided I needed a recipe so I could veganize it and make it my own. I wanted to serve it at my brother's wedding. Why would I use a cake I'd never made for an occasion like that? Good question. Insanity? But the lemon and blueberry marriage just sounded heavenly. And I uber increased the lemon so I knew it'd be off the charts. I don't know the origin of the original recipe but if you google Strawberry Yogurt Cake you'll find lots of options. 

Now onto my Lemon Blueberry Bundt Cake of deliciousness. 

1 Cup of room temperature Earth Balance

2 Cups of sugar

3 TBSP egg substitute (just the dry portion, the wet is coming up) ( I used homemade EnerG. and her recipe says rounded 1/2 TBSP to 2 TBSP liquid I go 1 full and 3 respectively for my subs, generally)

8 ounces non-dairy yogurt. The containers I buy are 6 oz. I used a full vanilla and 2 ounces from a blueberry.

1/3 Cup Non dairy milk (pretty much anything but chocolate)

1/3 Cup lemon juice

zest from 1 lemon

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 1/2 Cups whole wheat pastry flour (set aside 1/4 cup)

1 and 1/2 to 2 Cups fresh blueberries

Preheat over to 350. Grease and flour a bundt pan unless you have silicone then a light greasing is good enough. 

Mix milk and lemon juice together in a separate bowl and let sit for a couple minutes. In a separate bowl combine Earth Balance and sugar, add in lemon zest, salt and baking powder and mix well. Add the yogurt to the lemon juice/milk blend and stir well. Add the egg substitute powder and when incorporated pour the liquid into the sugar/Earth Balance bowl and stir very well. Add the flour (remember to set aside 1/4 cup) and blend. Then toss your blueberries with the reserved flour and pop them into the batter. Stir and pour into the bundt pan. Bake for 50 minutes to an hour. A knife should come out clean.  

Glaze. Approx 2 TBSP lemon juice to 1 Cup powdered sugar. But. You have to mess around with that to get it to the consistency you want. The cake is very moist. In hindsight I would have added another 1/2 Cup or so of sugar (or flour) to give it more body. 

Scribbles and Scrambles ~ B'day Blues...and Praises

Yesterday was birthday number 52 for me. As in a full deck of cards. Finally. 

Lookin for the pony in the pile of poo, folks. 

52. I don't feel much older than 17. Honestly, I'm still that 17-year-old-girl on the inside who doesn't know who she's supposed to be and what she wants to do with her life. 

But. While I'm still trying to figure that out, life has been happening. And I have been blessed. 

I have so many people who know me and love me any way. I have little children who call me Gramma Kelly for as long as they need to. Today they gave me handmade cards, hugs and kisses and deafness in one year. 


In the past week I have had meaningful and rich conversations and time well spent with all three of my kids and my daughter-in-law. My husband gave me two cards, one from the puppies thanking me for taking such good care of them and for loving them. And one where he shared that he loves me more than ever. 

My works buddies signed a card that poked gentle fun at me but shared a little love, too. Facebook friends peppered my wall with good wishes. Texts poured in. And my Bible study girls sang to me. As did my sweet little grand babies at my "surprise" party. "Surprise" because they each spilled the beans. :  ). And cautioned each other to stop spilling. 

My daughter made my cake recipe with the kids. Toad-Boy and the Mrs joined us. It was a lovely, lovely day. 

So in spite of the fact that I awoke with a pimple on my nose and managed to spill 194 degree tea down my side and had a busy day, it was a day that I celebrated fully and I'm thanking God for providing it. 

Scribbles and Scrambles ~ Cake Parade and Harvest Auto and Machinery Review

 Ha. Ha. So I said I'd post over my four day weekend. Yeah, right. Hope you didn't hold your breath. 

The desserts went over very well at the wedding. I didn't even get a taste of the strawberry beauty & made out of my recipe. Fortunately I was with my 7-year-old-foster-granddaughter and she couldn't finish her raspberry fudge deliciousness so I did get to taste that one. 

Thursday I was going to do a massive grocery run and get an early start on the cakes. Instead, I got to drive out to tiny town Wahoo Nebraska in between meeting my adult-woman-baby-child for breakfast, & and her 3-year-old and shopping for ingredients for the baking fest. &'s cousin, Trevor, owns a new dealership in Wahoo and he's kinda like a personal shopper for cars and trucks. If that makes sense. 

I HATE buying cars. With a passion. I've actually gotten hostile with a few smarmy used car salesman types. Rob's and my last car was new and we got it from our nephew at the big dealership he worked at in Omaha. It was the smoothest car buying session in the history of every car we've ever purchased. Painless. We send people to him because of the ease and because it's great to trust someone with your big buck decisions. Everyone raves about his knack of making car shopping simple. About five months ago Trevor moved into his own location. But with a spin. Most of his business is over the internet. Basically, you just let him know your specs (how much you want to spend, what type of vehicle, what must haves, etc.) and he finds a vehicle and gets you into it. 

He was going out of town over the weekend and & wanted to get her van before he left. So we headed out there. Again, painless. I sat in the waiting room and played with the 3-year-old until she had to take a poo. Then had to join her in the bathroom. 

The poo took longer than the paper work, I swear. 

If you are interested here's Trevor's website. Here it is. 

Back to wedding cakes...look for recipes. Coming soon. 

Scraps and Snippets ~ Upcoming Bake-Fest.

I'm going to be baking up a storm on Thursday and Friday. And I'll be dodging pups who will no doubt take up residence under my feet in case I drop something. 

Vegan cakes galore. Plan on recipes soon for the following: 

Raspberry Fudge Groom Cake

Strawberry Layer Cake

Pumpkin Caramel Pecan Cream Cheese Roll

Lemon Blueberry Bundt Cake

German Chocolate Bundt Cake

I have a couple tried and true recipes that I'll be using, and a few ventures into uncharted territories. I'll post pictures of the creations. Hopefully they'll be fabulous. 

Serials and Scenarios ~ Natural Balance Dental Chews

Gladys and Gertrude recently won a contest. A blogger I follow offered a Natural Balance Dental Chews giveaway. 

A random drawing = treats!

The ingredients: 

Brown Rice Flour, Rice Starch, Brewer's Yeast, Vegetable Glycerin, Yeast Extract, Coconut Oil, Kale, Parsley, Alfalfa, Sorbic Acid (preservative), L-Ascorbyl-2-Polyphosphate (source of Vitamin C).

The girls (Gladys and Gertrude) and (Lily and Lola) love them. And I love the ingredient list. The chew went down pretty lickety split with the big gals, but the little ones got to gnaw for awhile. My girls have gotten a bit picky about treats but these ones grabbed their attention. 

I don't have a giveaway for you, but if you are looking for a new treat to try. You can find a coupon at the Natural Balance site. 

Scribbles and Scrambles ~ Weekend Update

I made three pies for my brother's upcoming wedding on Saturday. Yay. Only a few cakes left to go.

We went to another wedding on Saturday. I read that 2013's biggest wedding month was September. I'm guessing the same holds true for 2014 and that September and October might be competing with the traditional May/June.

Other notable? Gertrude and Gladys turned 5 months old on Saturday. How fun is that? And speaking of fun let's look at a comparison shot or two. Note: tiny puppy was Gladys, big honkin puppy is Gertrude. Gladys was having nothing to do with the photo session.

After the photo shoot I had to take a shower and while I was showering some four-legged scoundrel took an extra roll of toilet paper and the two little fur-buddies had a blast.